Categories
artnude casa dracula fine art nude Hotelito todos santos inn

Naked In Baja eBook

After a very successful exhibition and book launch for my Naked In Baja limited edition printed book last month, I’ve been working hard to create an eBook version which represents the same high standard as the printed book. Of course you can never replace the tactile beauty of a high quality printed book but the images in this eBook do look quite stunning on an iPad.

Containing all the images of Samantha Grace, Carlotta Champagne, Ella Rose, Anne Duffy, Stephanie Anne, Anoush Anou, St Merrique, Sara Liz, Brooke Lynne and Meghan Claire that appear in the printed book, the eBook (iBook) version also contains an extra bonus of two small, behind-the-scenes videos from my shoot at Playa Las Cachora with Carlotta and Sara.

The book contains an introduction by Zoe Wiseman along with 8 chapters of artistic nude photography totalling over 110 pages. The eBook is now available through Blurb for immediate purchase and download.

Naked In Baja eBook @ Blurb

Categories
artnude casa bentley casa dracula fine art nude Hotelito todos santos inn

Naked In… Baja Mexico

I can’t believe it’s been just over a year since we were all basking in the Mexican sun, eating tacos, drinking margaritas an oh, taking lots of beautiful art nude photographs of course! It took my reminiscing about Mexico and missing everyone at Fest XI in Palm Springs while I was stuck at work back here in Brisbane to prompt me to finally do something serious with all of my art nude images.

So the Naked In…  projects were born and I decided the first in the series should be Naked In… Baja Mexico. Each project will consist of a fine-art limited edition book, an eBook, a limited set of postcards and a series of signed prints. To help raise funds for the design and production of the limited edition book from this first project, I have started a community funding campaign which, much to my amazement, managed to raise the initial funds needed to cover the basic costs in only 3 days. There is also a website / blog to support this and the future Naked In… projects so make sure you check it out and keep visiting to see the latest updates – www.naked-in.com

Of course it would be great to see the support for this project continue so if you are interested in supporting it, click on the photo and head to the Pozible campaign and have a look at what’s on offer.

 

 

Categories
artnude casa bentley fine art nude travel

Part 18 of 50: Stephanie Anne Bucks Up A Little Camper

This is part eighteen in a series of blogs on my recent artistic adventures in Mexico.

Sorry it’s been a while since the last ZoeFest update. I bet some of you thought I gave up after 17 entries. Not so!

I’m used to being busy but the last few months have been even moreso here at Billy Sheahan Photography. Finding a few hours to compose new ZoeFest entries has been a rare occurrence.

So where were we? Ah yes. Stephanie Anne!

It was Saturday morning in Todos Santos, Mexico. Not that Saturday really feels much different than any other day in paradise. Hell, even Monday feels like Saturday here.

I had two photoshoots scheduled that day, first with the lovely Stephanie Anne and later with the beautiful Anoush Anou.

I was looking forward to yet another day of working with incredibly creative humans. Unfortunately I was a bit distracted at the same time. You see, a couple of days earlier, I had gotten a call from my sister back in the States that my mom suffered what seemed to be a small stroke. A few years earlier she had a major stroke and it severely incapacitated her, taking over a year for her to get back a fair amount of mobility and that was only after which we could breathe a sigh of relief that she was going to live through it at all.

Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley
Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley

News was slow in getting to me in my cocoon of paradise and I had been weighing whether I should even stay or cut my adventure short and fly back to see my mom. We had decided to wait a few days to see how serious it was. There was a lot of family looking in on her, so while my mom was constantly on my mind, my absence was less noticeable than it might have been otherwise. But I was still unsure that staying thousands of miles away was the correct decision.

A small group of family members finally convinced me that considering my penchant for overworking myself during the year, it might be a good idea for me to stay put in paradise and try to enjoy myself unless things took a turn for the worse.

Still, since telephone service was spotty, I was spending a lot of time looking for signal bars on my phone so as not to miss an urgent call. It was tricky to fully relax and concentrate on shooting.

By the time I met Stephanie Anne at another of our artist hotels, the lush Casa Bentley, I wasn’t nearly as prepared as I wanted to be for her. I wandered around the grounds looking for inspiration. Some unusual spot to allow her to find something special and inspire her as well. By the time she was ready to go, I had found very little that spoke to me. Or perhaps it actually was speaking to me, but I was having difficulty hearing it over all of my mental chatter.

Luckily, Stephanie is a joyful soul. Her energy and spirit can lift the volume of any gathering, and I mean that in a good way. I apologized for my being a bit distracted and Stephanie immediately took over the load of creating the inspiration. She carried me that morning. No question about it.

Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley
Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley

I remember starting at the base of a beautiful wide Hule tree that anchored the grounds of Casa Bentley. I was still trying to decide which lens I was going to start with and when I looked up for a moment, I could see that she had already found a place among the intertwined roots and vines and was handing it to me on a platter. I really hadn’t imagined that. But she did and that was enough to kick start our shoot.

I stepped behind a low branch, putting a series of long slender leaves between Stephanie and myself, defocused enough so that it created an almost there set of diagonal lines across the frame that played with her poses and the strong lines of the tree’s root structure. My head was beginning to find some focus at last.

It was wonderful to feed off of Stephanie’s energy. I was still struggling more than usual. But I knew the pictures were beginning to work. She was brilliant and beautiful and as I sometimes have to do when my mind is preoccupied with events away from the photo shoot, I just tried to not over think anything. I’ve found that emptying my head in these situations is the best way for me to go. It results in less direction to my subject as to what vision I’m seeing, which is a bit more challenging for my model, most of whom are accustomed to more feedback from me. Instead I find myself switching to a more documentary photographic style where I’m just looking through the viewfinder and composing what feels right at the moment.

Just letting go.

Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley
Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley

We walked along the grounds of the lovely Casa Bentley, the design inspired by the castles of Portugal. The owner, Bob Bentley is a geologist and used his collection of rocks and gemstones, acquired during years of world travels, to adorn the walls and surfaces of the lavish grounds when he designed and built the hotel beginning in 1985.

Stephanie and I stopped along the garden path and I began to compose photographs of her along the walls and ledges of our idyllic environment. She stretched and curved and evoked and I began to see a character emerge. I was watching a story unfold. Sometimes joyful, sometimes somber. A fitting mirror to my own thoughts at the moment.

I was enjoying the dapples of light cascading down through the leaves creating additional patterns to compose with in addition to the decorative rocks and gemstones. As hard as the surfaces were that we were creating in, Stephanie managed to add a softness that made the rocky nature feel more like a living organism rather than a immovable force.

Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley
Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley

We continued through to the back of the hotel grounds and found a shady, more natural area. Again, she played among the trees and a large stump in the center of it all. At this point I was simply happy to observe her explore and play. Creating human shapes among the existing elements of nature.

Nearby, we noticed a small little canal perhaps for water runoff from the rest of the grounds. In a rare bit of direction on this shoot, I had Stephanie pose near one end of the small waterway while I planked across the other end, trying to line up her reflection in an interesting manner.

While water is something I always enjoy working with as an element in  photograph, since we didn’t know exactly where the water was coming from, we decided it would probably be best to be close to the water without actually touching the water. I felt a bit like a human teeter-totter balancing precariously above while trying to focus and compose. But it worked.

The day was getting hot by this point and I thought we might try to find something interesting in the Casa Bentley pool. Whenever possible, I like to compose pool images without any of the obvious pool tile decorations and as Stephanie and I got our bearings, I found an interesting look when I stood right at the pool’s edge, leaning as far over the water as possible without falling in and shooting straight down into the water with a wide lens.

Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley
Stephanie Anne at Casa Bentley

I told Stephanie to submerge a few feet below the surface and try to pose as she would out of the water. It’s actually a challenging thing to do because bodies tend to want to float to the surface, but Stephanie did an amazing job of swim posing as I followed her along the edge.

The resulting photographs are very unusual for me with their bold color and loveliness. The combination of the intense sunlight overhead created interesting patterns and water reflections and gave Stephanie a nice glow. her hair picked up the highlights from the sun resulting an an unearthly splash of red color. Something unexpected when I got back to my studio to review everything. A very happy surprise.

I was so pleased with how the shoot turned out, especially since I was not at my best that day. It proves again what I’ve been saying all along. Stephanie and the other Zoefest models were such intelligent, lovely and creative collaborators. My shoot that morning could have been much less than it turned out to be without Stephanie’s positivity and her love for creating beautiful art.

Thank you Stephanie Anne. You can put me down now.

Categories
artnude casa bentley casa dracula fine art nude

FestX Musing

The Ballet of the Lucha Libre

In addition to the shooting around Todos Santos, their were the wonderful moments meeting many new people.  One afternoon I went to the pool at the Casa Bently to appreciate the experience while contemplating the cold and snow I was reading about back home.  There at the pool, I meet world citizen Tara Tree and had a most splendid chat with her.  Later my wife Dee Dee told me of her experience at the turtle release and how much more enriching it was because of Tara’s translations.  Thank you Tara!  Upon my departure from Todos Santos I was taking Brooke Lynne to the Aeropuerto and Samantha Grace rode along as she had a flight later in the day.  To kill some time Samantha and I explored a couple old cemeteries where the locals were preparing loved ones’ grave sites for the day of the dead festival, then a formal catus garden and ending in the downtown of San Jose del Cabo for lunch where she expanded my vocabulary.  Muchas gracias Samantha and loco tacos!!!

The following is a little taste, a sampling, from my time shooting at the Zoe Fest X in Todos Santo, BCS, Mexico.
Meghan
Meghan – Mexico 2011
In the palm oasis that divides Toto Santos.  In addition to her modeling, I also highly recommend checking out Meghan’s photography.
Candace
Where the Cactus Dance
On the bluff overlooking the old port dock.  Worth the bumpy drive up the mountain and worth the full insurance on the rental car.
St. Merrique
St. Merrique – Mexico 2011
A little shoot with big rewards!
Anoush Anou
Fusion
Unlike other shoots, I did not have a lot planned.  I am glad, because what she created was splendid.
Brooke Lynne
Brindled Lagoon
A friend who shares her art with me.  Thank you!
Stephanie Anne
Mi Casa
A day before the Fest I explored this house and it looked like none had set foot in it for years.  It soon was evident how popular it became, I thought a little make over would create something unique.
Keira and Rebecca Lawrence
Luchadoras – From the series: The Ballet of the Lucha Libre.©
I am very grateful for their professionalism working with me shooting this series.
Keira
Charro
In my head I kept hearing music from a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western.
Ella Rose
Garden of Delights
Our schedules did not mesh in Germany, so we met in Mexico.  Such a delight!
Art, that others have created, in it’s many forms is much of my foundation and inspiration for the art I seek to create.
Below is a short video that is both a homage to Rene Magritte and to my experiences with those I created with in Mexico.
Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.
Rene Magritte
Categories
artnude fine art nude Hotelito

15

I started a new “tradition” last year in Australia. It seemed only fitting that I do it again.

There will be video soon…

Every model who was at the festival!

Claudine, Ella Rose, Anoush Anou, Meghan, Stephanie Anne, Kiera Grant, Rebecca Lawrence, St. Merrique, Candace Nirvana, Brooke Lynne, Carlotta Champagne, Samantha Grace, Anne Duffy, Tara Tree and Sara Liz. Thank you, Ladies! Stay tuned for the video!

15 © 2011 Zoe Wiseman
15 © 2011 Zoe Wiseman
15 © 2011 Zoe Wiseman
15 © 2011 Zoe Wiseman
15 © 2011 Zoe Wiseman
15 © 2011 Zoe Wiseman
Categories
artnude travel

Behind the scenes

 

 

All shot with my phone and the Plastic Bullet app. Todos Santos Inn was a refuge from the heat.  I actually went out and shot a sunset too! Thank goodness for Stephanie Anne, who was Zoe’s voice, and totally engaging while we waited for the slideshows. 🙂

So sad to leave…….

 

Categories
snap shots travel

Tortugas!

Stephanie Anne and the Black Sea Turtle babies….

Categories
artnude fine art nude

Stephanie Anne

The last shoot of my  first ZoeFest was with a lovely New Mexican by the name of Stephanie Anne so it was only fitting that I continued on from that fantastic sunrise beach shoot with another here in Baja.

Mal Grant and I drove Anne D & Stephanie Anne down to Cabo San Lucas in the hope of getting some shots with the famous Arch in the background. Unfortunately the massive ocean liner parked in right in front put paid to that idea so we needed to find another spot real fast before we lost the good morning light. Luckily we found a couple of great beaches only a few minutes further south from Cabo.

My shoot with Stephanie Anne continued later that day when the afternoon cooled down a little and we shot at the Hotelito in Todos Santos.

Cam Attree – http://www.nudephotographer.com.au